Ameer Abas was a former director of Absolute Living Developments (ALD), whose collapse this year is being investigated by police in Hong Kong. He is listed at Companies House under the name Ameerali BIN ABAS.

The liquidation of ALD has left three projects in Bradford unfinished and has sparked protests in Hong Kong, where hundreds of buy-to-let investors fear they have lost millions of pounds.

Abas is now a director of Golden Sands Developments Limited, another company which builds apartments and sells them to overseas buy-to-let investors.

Anyone investing in Viewpoint Salford, be aware that this property is owned by FSL Properties Ford Lane Limited, a company owned by Empirical Property Group Limited, previously known as Fresh Start Living (Holdings) Manchester.

Charles "Charlie" Cunningham is connected to all these businesses and you can see his track record here:

A company behind a controversial bid to turn a derelict government building in Runcorn into flats has distanced itself from another firm that went bust under a cloud of anger from investors and the Advertising Standards Agency in 2013.

Absolute Living Developments (ALD) has applied to convert East Lane House next to Runcorn Shopping Centre into 448 studio and single-bedroom flats.

On Friday, it confirmed to the Weekly News that it had taken over some part-completed developments from Fresh Start Living (FSL), which went into liquidation in 2013.

The company’s statement came after the Weekly News found loan documents lodged with Government business website Companies House relating to third party lender DS7 Ltd.

The forms showed that DS7 had loaned cash to ALD for the East Lane House project, with the terms of the contract granting DS7 Ltd power to appoint one of its officers as a receiver in the event that ALD goes into receivership.

The contract also gives DS7 Ltd the power to ‘take possession’ of the flats in the case of ALD’s demise.

Another form lists the recipient on a forwarding address for DS7 Ltd as ‘for the attention of Charles Cunningham’.

The Weekly News asked ALD whether this was linked to former Fresh Start Living director Charles Alexander Clunie Cunningham, who was the subject of a critical article by Daily Mirror investigative report Andrew Penman in September 2013.

Further documents on Companies House showed that a former Fresh Start Living director, Philip Wright, had been a director at ‘Absolute Living Developments (Orchid Point)’ – another company with a loan from DS7 Ltd.

ALD’s spokeswoman said Philip Wright had been on the board of a ‘vehicle’ that owned a FSL development site acquired by ALD.

He was replaced after the acquisition.

She said there was ‘no relation’ between ALD and DS7 Ltd.

Fresh Start Living went into liquidation in 2013.

Andrew Penman, of the Daily Mirror, said the firm had left investors fuming after they alleged they were left out of pocket having pumped thousands of pounds into properties renovated by FSL.

FSL was also investigated by the Advertising Standards Authority (ASA) after a complaint was made over the firm’s claim to have made a £4m profit. The ASA upheld the grievance.

The Business Desk reported in September 2013 that Stockport Council and Greater Manchester Fire And Rescue Service were taking separate actions over safety breaches.

An ALD spokeswoman said: “Absolute Living Developments have acquired a number of developments around the country.

“Some of these were part-completed developments from Fresh Start Living which were acquired when it went into administration, one being Orchid Point whereby Absolute Living Developments acquired the vehicle that owned the site.

“Philip Wright was on the board of the vehicle and was replaced when the acquisition completed – there is no other connection between Absolute Living Developments and Fresh Start Living.

“DS7 Limited is a lender to Absolute Living Developments on certain developments.”

Halton Borough Council’s development control committee is due to hold a ‘special meeting’ tonight to decide whether to allow ALD’s proposed conversion of East Lane House into flats.

The scheme has been blasted as ‘barmy’ by Halton Lea ward’s Cllr Dave Thompson.

ALD insists it will attract young professionals and key workers.

By Oliver Clay, Runcorn Weekly News / Liverpool Echo

Investigation continues into collapse of Bradford flats developer as number of people alleging deception grows

Work is slow on a housing development in Rotherham town centre with development companies wound up and even linked to protests in Hong Kong by worried investors.

Revised plans to convert the historic Howard Building into self-contained studios and apartments were approved by the planning board at Rotherham Council in 2015.

The prominent former college building was sold prior to going to auction after it was advertised as a development opportunity and given a guide price of £250,000 by local auctioneers, Mark Jenkinson & son.

With little evidence of the conversion into twelve, one bed apartments and 60 studio apartments at "Howard Residencies", applicants, AVRO Developments headed into insolvency, with Rotherham Council leading the petition in 2015 to have the company wound up.

Financial documents link AVRO Developments to DS7 Limited which has acted as a lender to Absolute Living Developments, Fresh Start Living and Empirical Property, all highlighted in the media as leaving buy-to-let investors out of pocket.

Similar schemes in Manchester, Bradford and across the North of England were sold off plan to investors with the promise of decent returns, but the work was never completed and companies were wound up and projects moved on in complex deals. In some cases where some work was carried out, tenants were left with exposed electrical wires, a leaking roof, an illegal gas connection, a car park strewn with contaminated waste and an open sewer pipe.

The Telegraph & Argus reported this year that police in Hong Kong are conducting an international investigation into Liverpool-based Absolute Living Developments, which had been part-way through three apartment projects in Bradford when it was placed in compulsory liquidation. Overseas investors fear they have lost their money paid in deposits.

Howard Residencies is currently being offered as an investment opportunity by Crown Union (located at a virtual office in London and shares directors with companies linked to the Howard Building and DS7 Limited). It is offered as an "Ideal purchase for investors looking at UK Buy To Let's as a way of getting onto the first rung of the property investment ladder. From dynamic apartment layouts to classic period façade and stonework surrounds, this redevelopment brings together Rotherham past and present to create a truly unique place to live for post-graduates, young professionals & key workers."

Starter pads and 1 bed apartments are being offered at £49,950 and £69,950 with an 8% ROI per annum.

A former public schoolboy has been named as the alleged mastermind behind a multi-million pound property development fraud, according to High Court papers.

Charles Cunningham, whose time at Eton overlapped with Prince William’s, has been identified in court papers as controlling a series of companies used to defraud Asian investors of millions of pounds by enticing them with UK developments that were never completed.

The son of a City financier, Mr Cunningham, whose brother Rupert is friends with some of Prince Harry’s inner circle, lives in a large country estate in North Wales with his wife. The couple boast a who’s who of society contacts.

Mr Cunningham, 38, flatly denies all the allegations and has said that he is confident that a High Court hearing will overturn the freezing order which was brought by the liquidator of Absolute Living Developments.

He has been accused of being one of the masterminds behind ALD, which offered five large development projects in northern England that were marketed to investors in the Far East and South-East Asia.

But in April 2016 the company, which boasted developments in Runcorn, Manchester and Bradford, went into liquidation.

ALD is one of a raft of UK property companies that have become mired in controversy in Asia. Hong Kong investors and politicians have accused the UK authorities and police of turning a blind eye to multi-million pound ‘fraud’.
Hong Kong politicians have reported ALD to the Serious Fraud Office and have also asked the Chinese government to protect the interests of Chinese investors in UK property projects. The news comes as Beijing attempts to slow down the outflow of capital from the country.

Liquidator Louise Brittain was recently granted a £14.5 million freezing order in the High Court, designed to prevent ‘steps to dissipate or secrete assets’ from ALD by Mr Cunningham and a business partner.

In her High Court affidavit in support of the order, the liquidator said she had discovered that ‘a substantial proportion of the monies owed and/or paid to ALD…had been wrongfully diverted’ to three companies, named as DS7, Gozon and EPG Manlet.

Brittain states that the ‘three companies form part of a complex structure of entities under the control’ of Mr Cunningham and his alleged business partner, which, she claims, ‘has been used to defraud investors (most of whom are based in Hong Kong and Malaysia)’.

Mr Cunningham told The Mail on Sunday: ‘These monies were not wrongfully diverted and a forensic report is currently being prepared which will establish the exact payments and the legitimacy of those payments made by these companies.’ ALD, set up in 2013 to market properties, is linked to a Salford-based company called Fresh Start Living. In 2011, Mr Cunningham was brought in as the face of FSL, but the firm went bankrupt in 2013 with debts of more than £2 million.

Mr Cunningham, whose ancestors include baronets and a Founding Father of the American constitution, has a social media profile showing that he is Facebook friends with Ben Vestey, a close friend of Prince William, and Edward Guinness, a scion of the brewing family.

In April 2016, Mr Cunningham bought a large Georgian country house in North Wales for more than a million pounds. It has played host to visiting literary giants Lord Byron, William Wordsworth and Sir Walter Scott. Mr Cunningham told The Mail on Sunday: ‘The freezing order is a cynical abuse of power. DS7 categorically refutes all claims and allegations made by Louise Brittain and it will challenge the injunction and debunk any allegations with the very facts and evidence that they have deliberately withheld.’

In the court papers, the liquidator states that ALD would take 50 per cent of the purchase price usually before the company had even bought the property. Investors complain that the properties were never actually completed.
Mr Cunningham admitted that some had not been finished, but blamed a group of Malaysian businessmen who he claimed were the ultimate owners of ALD.

R v Andrew John Camilleri (2018) – An IVA Proposal and War of Attrition

On Monday 29th January 2018, following a private prosecution, Andrew John Camilleri was unanimously convicted by a jury at Manchester Crown Court of making false representations in an Individual Voluntary Arrangement (“IVA”)[1] proposal contrary to section 262A of the Insolvency Act 1986. The prosecution was brought by one of Camilleri’s many creditors.